Speeches by Paul.

“Finally, I want to be very clear that none of these points should be read as minimising the concerns of survivors. As I have said, it is about getting the right balance. Both sides are important, and at the end of the day, it is all about safety. We need to keep children as safe as we possibly can.”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I do not support clause 7 or schedule 2. I welcome the debate on various amendments and the comments from the Minister. Clause 7 and schedule 2 would replace the current automatic right of appeal from the magistrates court to the Crown court with a much narrower…”

“That leads me naturally to my second point: the numbers do not support reform. Sir Brian Leveson noted that only about 0.4% of magistrates court decisions were appealed in 2024. The Bar Council quotes that figure directly, alongside the success rates of 41% and 44%, so we are dealing with a very small slice of the over…”

“There is also a question of timing. The Family Services Foundation draws our attention to the Pathfinder pilot, which uses a more investigative and problem-solving model to identify risk early and to improve safety for children and parents who experience domestic abuse. It says that early stages appear to be showing po…”

“I completely agree with the hon. Member. I appreciate the fact that she has tabled these amendments and that she recognises that it is not easy to strike this balance, particularly when we are trying to address abuse and alienation cases and it is sometimes hard to know what situation we are dealing with. We are trying…”

“Another point that deserves to be touched on is the human impact of any legal change in this area. I am concerned that repeal may be emotionally costly to non-resident parents. We have all read the written evidence citing very high levels of suicidal ideation among separated fathers who have lost meaningful contact wit…”

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“That is why the existing system makes sense. The magistrates court is not recorded and reviewed in the way that a Crown court jury trial is, so the present appeal system cannot be seen as a luxury; it is the mechanism by which error, questions of credibility, misjudgment and unfairness can be corrected in a jurisdictio…”

““The Law Commission…considered and…rejected a leave requirement, citing the low number of appeals, lack of evidence of abuse, and the importance of correcting wrongful outcomes”.”

“The clause cannot be viewed in isolation from clause 6. As we have covered already in our proceedings, the Law Society expressly opposes the increase in magistrates’ sentencing powers in clause 6, particularly when combined with the restrictions on appeals in clause 7. That is understandable because, taken together, th…”

“The same is true on sentence. Members may recall a piece of written evidence that we received from a witness describing how, after a magistrates court conviction for criminal damage said to have caused zero pounds-worth of damage, an immediate three-month custodial sentence was imposed. Her co-defendant appealed and th…”

“Five-hundred sitting days reclaimed is not nothing, but in the context of the overall criminal court crisis, it is modest at best. It is also far from obvious that those days would be saved, once one accounts for permission applications, arguments about grounds, challenges over transcripts, and the possibility that ret…”

“There is a final and wider point here about confidence in the system. It seems obvious that restricting appeals will undermine confidence in jury-less justice. The magistrates court already lacks the democratic legitimacy and public reassurance that comes from jury trial. The answer to that deficit is not to make appel…”

“I also oppose schedule 2, which would insert proposed new sections 108A to 108V into the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980. This is a comprehensive replacement framework. It is what introduces the permission requirement, the new grounds test, the single judge model, the new retrial provisions and the narrowing of what the ap…”

“The introduction of a paper application with no right to an oral hearing is a flaw. Even in appeals from the Crown court to the Court of Appeal, a refused paper application may be renewed orally. The Bar Council is clear that, where a decision is made on paper, there should be a safeguard in the form of a right to rene…”

“It would be for the Crown court to decide whether to hold a hearing to determine permission. In other words, the initial stages of the process will play out entirely on paper, without any oral hearing at all. That is a serious change.”

““reasonably arguable that there are one or more grounds for allowing the appeal.””

“For all those reasons, I oppose clause 7 and schedule 2. The current appeal route from the magistrates court exists for a reason. It is a vital safeguard used in a tiny proportion of cases, but succeeds at a strikingly high rate. The Government’s proposed replacement would introduce a narrower permission-based, paper-h…”

“One of the most troubling aspects of schedule 2 is the proposed permission stage itself. The Crown court would grant permission only if it is”

“That matters politically and substantively. If the Government want magistrates courts to do more serious work, to keep more serious cases and, potentially, to impose longer prison terms, it is perverse to at the same time make it harder to challenge the outcomes of that expanded jurisdiction. One might have thought tha…”